Stuttgarter Zeitung
11.2017

Visions for the stationary retail trade in Stuttgart

Will autonomous mobility and shopping soon be linked to one another? The Stuttgart architect Frank Dittel is thinking about this and other strategies for the retail as well as foodservice industry. Photo: Lichtgut

Stuttgart – In stationary retail, the cardinal rules are explained to trainees from day one: always let the customer enter the store on the right, never place the cash desk in the middle and do not stack the shelves right up to the ceiling, so that people can keep their bearings. Simple rules – and yet somehow they get forgotten in shops from time to time. Such retailers are usually not customers of modern architects who specialise in feel-good places. The shop of today and tomorrow should be nothing less than this. The Stuttgart-based architect Frank Dittel has been working on this theme since 2005 and learns something new every day. Meanwhile, he also knows: nowadays an architect in the field of retail and foodservice has to take on the role of consultant and psychologist as well.

»We need to know what makes people tick and what needs they have,« he says. What does the customer want? The short answer is: continually new stimuli. But stimulation alone is not enough. »Nowadays, a good sales space has to meet the expectations of the new consumer generation, freedom-loving and individual,« says Dittel’s colleague Katharina Axtmann.

»These days, demand is fulfilled via the Internet. The shop has to be a place to get your inspiration, to help you decide, and where experiences are offered.«

His mission: to create feel-good zones

With these factors in mind, Dittel goes further than just designing zones and lounges at Breuninger or the new Mußler/Notino store in Gerber. He also transfers his ideas to many restaurants in the Dorotheen Quartier. For example, Sansibar, Enso Sushi & Grill and Eduard’s. In principle, the considerations that apply to retail hold equally good for the foodservice business. Dittel puts it in a nutshell: »hospitality is the new retail.« In plain language: hospitality is the magic word in sales: »therefore I do not believe that stationary retail is dead. It just needs to really understand and meet people’s needs.« He himself experienced this during his time in London. There, one scarcely spends any time living in one’s own four walls any more. He sees the same thing here: “living space is scarce, people more or less only use home as a place to sleep. They want to get out and talk«. Retailers can respond to this if they adapt to it architecturally and conceptually. This means wide and open-plan spaces, good room orientation and offers that entice you to linger. The person as a social being must be the centre of attention.

Every day he and his team deal with where the journey is going in the future. Some of it looks alien and bizarre. »But we take on even idiotic ideas as a bridge to designs for the present«. One such scenario is an idea that combines autonomous mobility and shopping. Specifically: the customer doesn’t only order the vehicle, but a moving store to go with it. The background of these adventurous thoughts is once again the human being and their needs as well as the trend towards (self-) optimisation: »whoever acts in this way will gain time. Time that everyone wants to maximise these days,« says Dittel.

The trend is towards (self-) optimisation

According to Dittel, the demands which people are now exposed to at work, or those which are self-imposed, also influence consumer behaviour:

»these days we demand the maximum«. On the availability of the goods and the service. And that completes the circle. Anyone who wants to achieve all that and wants to stay fit for the future, »faces the biggest challenge: they must combine online and offline«.

And it’s true, the customer should not be led from the store entrance to the left side of the store area. »That’s not in the nature of most people,« says Frank Dittel, »it makes them uncertain, gives them an uneasy feeling«. And that is what today’s retail is all about. Not pragmatism while shopping, but the feel-good factor while shopping.